Obstructive respiratory disorders entail apnea (respiratory arrest) causing the sleeping person to wake up. Frequent apnea prevents the sleeping sufferer from entering recuperative deep sleep. As a result, sufferers incurring apnea during their sleep are sleep-deprived during the day: social problems may arise at work and in the worst case fatal accidents may be incurred, for instance as regards professional truck drivers.
Devices for carrying out the therapy of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) are known in the state of the art. CPAP therapy is described in detail in CHEST, vol. 110, pp 1077 through 1088, October 1996 and in SLEEP, vol. 19, pp 184 through 188.
In CPAP therapy, a constant, excess pressure is fed to a patient through a nasal mask. When the excess pressure is properly selected, it keeps the upper airway fully open overnight and as a result obstructive respiratory disorders do not arise. In part the required pressure depends on the sufferer's sleep stage and his/her body position. A therapeutic device (AutoCPAP) is known from the German patent document 198 49 571 A1 which automatically adjusts the applied pressure and thus matches it to the sleep stage and the body position.
Moreover nasal oxygen cannulae for oxygen treatment are known in the state of the art. Using the nasal oxygen cannula, air containing a higher partial oxygen pressure (>210 mbars) or pure oxygen is administered into the nose. Illustratively oxygen treatment is applied for acute or chronic hypoxemia caused by respiratory or cardiac circulatory disorders (mycroinfarct, shock) or certain poisonings, for instance by carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, coal gas or smoke.
Lastly it is known treating race horses following racing with moistened air. The moistened air is introduced into the horse's nostrils by a device similar to a nasal oxygen cannula but matched to the shape of the horse's head. Because of the high volume of breathing when running, the horse's nasal mucous membrane is unable to deliver enough moisture, and consequently the nasal mucous membrane dries up.